JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 360

Its not often that one sees a Queen on a side car (actually a “railway plateplayer’s trolley”)  in a coal bit, but such is the case in this photograph, showng her majesty at the Silverwood Colliery (near Rotherham), in the southern mining districts of Yorkshire.  The King and Queen attended to interests there at the coal mine “quite an hour”, before returning to finery and fuss.  Though fuss is what was made to transport the queen from point to point, her human-propelled on this car, looking not very comfortable, gripping her rapier-thin parasol with her three middle fingers.  I’m sure that the four men selected for this task (the three that we can see wearing similar boutonnieres)–their shoes spotless, their jackets pressed–were told to take it quite slow and steady, what with the queen on board.  I can’t decide what the look is, exactly, from the lead man–at the very least I don’t think that he wants to be there.  For a very busy mine there aren’t very many men in view, save for the guy on the right with the shovel; I feel pretty confident that these working fellows were kept away so as not to drift into the picture, like this guy, who would remind them of the  scrubby un-scrubbed  who made the Empire run.
(Image from The Illustrated London News, 13 July, 1912)